HENRY J. LEIR, 98, CREATED METALS TRADING FIRM

Henry J. Leir, who built a leading commodities trading firm and became a dedicated philanthropist after selling his company in 1968, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 98. Mr. Leir, who was born in Germany, entered the metals and mining business in that country, where he worked his way up at Magnesis GmbH, a company based in Bonn.

In 1933, he fled Nazi Germany for Luxembourg, where he continued his career in metals trading. Five years later, he left Europe for the United States, where he established the Continental Ore Corp. In 1962, Mr. Leir arranged a $250 million, pig iron contract between South Africa and Japan. Not only was the deal unusually large, but pig iron, a crude form of the metal, was not normally sold internationally. It took Mr. Leir two years to piece together the deal.

Six years later, Mr. Leir agreed to sell Continental Ore to the International Minerals and Chemical Corp. for $40 million in stock. By then, he had built a major international trading concern, dealing in ores, minerals, alloys and carbon products, with offices in Luxembourg, London, Paris, Tokyo, Mexico City and Duesseldorf, Germany.

It also invested in mining and processing operations.

After that, said Lewis Lipton, who was president when Continental Ore was sold, Mr. Leir stepped away from daily operations.

He became involved with philanthropy after the sale of his company, focusing on institutions such as universities and hospitals, Rosenthal said.

Mr. Leir gave money to help underprivileged children and was an active donor to Jewish institutions.

Mr. Leir had honorary doctorates from numerous universities.

Ema Leir, his wife of 67 years, died in 1996. He is survived by a sister, Hedy Weiger, of Manhattan.